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Emily Dickinson's Collected Poems

Part Three: Nature 20. Arcturus is his other name

OLD-FASHIONED.


Arcturus is his other name, --

I'd rather call him star!

It's so unkind of science

To go and interfere!


I pull a flower from the woods, --

A monster with a glass

Computes the stamens in a breath,

And has her in a class.


Whereas I took the butterfly

Aforetime in my hat,

He sits erect in cabinets,

The clover-bells forgot.


What once was heaven, is zenith now.

Where I proposed to go

When time's brief masquerade was done,

Is mapped, and charted too!


What if the poles should frisk about

And stand upon their heads!

I hope I 'm ready for the worst,

Whatever prank betides!


Perhaps the kingdom of Heaven 's changed!

I hope the children there

Won't be new-fashioned when I come,

And laugh at me, and stare!


I hope the father in the skies

Will lift his little girl, --

Old-fashioned, naughty, everything, --

Over the stile of pearl!